Julius Gordon, combat medic, decorated with Bronze Star

September 11, 1999

Julius Gordon, a combat medic who worehis World War II decorations on his deathbed, died Wednesday of respiratory failure at Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centre in Reisterstown. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 79.

Mr. Gordon, known as Jules, enlisted in the Army in 1940. In 1942, he was shipped overseas to the Pacific Theater of operations where he was assigned as a medic to a Marine Corps unit and saw action at Guadalcanal and Bougainville Island.

After being discharged in 1945, he returned to Baltimore and owned and operated a wholesale produce business until opening Gordon's Package Goods at Carey and Mosher streets.

Mr. Gordon had never pressed the Defense Department for his World War II decorations. It was from the three-year efforts of his brother-in-law Meyer Hankin and Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore that he received his decorations shortly before his death.

"Last Sunday, we had a family gathering including his friend Williams Gold, who had served with him in the South Pacific, to see him decorated with the Bronze Star and his campaign medals," said Toby Gordon, a daughter who lives in Roland Park.

Born in Baltimore and raised in South Baltimore, Mr. Gordon was a 1937 graduate of Southern High School. He was married in 1945 to the former Beatrice Rosenfeld; who died in 1960.

Mr. Gordon collected wine and enjoyed fishing, reading, singing and traveling to Jamaica and Aruba. He was a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Gordon is survived by his wife of 31 years, the former Sibyl Raksin; a son, Steven Gordon of Baltimore; two stepsons, Stanley Raksin of Owings Mills and Jay Raksin of Columbia; a stepdaughter, Marcia Benesh of Baltimore; and five grandchildren.